Glossary

Plain-language definitions for terms used across this wiki. Each guide page links a term here the first time it uses it. Terms are in alphabetical order.

Affinity by Canva

The current version of Affinity (V3), published by Canva after Canva acquired Serif in 2024. Adds Canva account sign-in and cloud features on top of the older Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher apps. See Related Projects: LoginFix for the sign-in fix under Wine.

AffinityPluginLoader (APL)

A community plugin loader for Affinity, written by noahc3. Lets small unofficial patches ("plugins") hook into Affinity's own process without modifying Affinity's files directly. See Related Projects: AffinityPluginLoader & WineFix.

Bottles

A graphical app for creating and managing separate Wine environments ("bottles"), so each Windows app gets its own isolated setup. See Install Guide: Bottles.

CLR (Common Language Runtime)

The .NET runtime that executes Affinity's managed (C#) code. Under Wine, the CLR runs on top of Wine's Windows API implementation, and needs .NET Framework installed in the Wine prefix (this project always installs .NET Framework 4.8, dotnet48).

DLL override

A Wine setting that tells Wine to use a specific version of a Windows library (a .dll file), Wine's own built-in one or a real file placed in the prefix ("native"). This project uses one DLL override, forcing wintypes to load as native, to work around a missing WinRT implementation.

DXVK

A compatibility layer that translates Direct3D 9/10/11 calls into Vulkan calls, commonly bundled by Proton/GE-Proton and some Wine launchers. Affinity doesn't need DXVK. Installing it anyway can cause screen flashing/flicker. See Install Guide: Heroic's Known Issues and Install Guide: Lutris's Known Issues.

Flatpak

A cross-distro Linux app packaging and sandboxing format. Several tools this project recommends (Bottles, Heroic, Lutris) are most commonly installed as Flatpaks. A sandboxed app's files live under ~/.var/app/<app-id>/ on your host system, not in the usual locations.

GE-Proton

A community-maintained fork of Valve's Proton compatibility layer (itself based on Wine), commonly available as a runner in Heroic and Lutris. This project doesn't recommend this runner. Prefer a plain Wine build like ElementalWarriorWine or a recent Kron4ek build.

GLIBC

The GNU C Library, a core system library every Linux program (including Wine) links against. A "GLIBC version not found" error means your distro's GLIBC is older than what a particular Wine build expects. See General Known Issues.

Harmony (Lib.Harmony)

A .NET library for patching methods in a running program without changing its source code. AffinityPluginLoader plugins (including LoginFix) use Harmony to apply their fixes.

Heroic Games Launcher

A graphical game launcher originally built for Epic/GOG/Amazon game stores, that can also run arbitrary Windows .exe installers through Wine or Proton. See Install Guide: Heroic.

Kron4ek Wine builds

Community Wine builds maintained by Kron4ek, offering current upstream Wine versions as ready-to-download archives. This project's Bottles guide uses these.

Lutris

A graphical game manager that can install and launch both native Linux games and Windows games/apps through Wine, using install scripts. See Install Guide: Lutris.

OAuth

The standard that Canva's account sign-in flow uses: your browser handles the actual login, then hands a one-time code back to Affinity through a special affinity:// link. See Related Projects: LoginFix for why this used to crash under Wine.

TypeLoadException

A .NET error thrown when the runtime can't find a type (a class or struct) that a method's code refers to. The Canva sign-in crash was one of these, caused by a missing WinRT type. See Related Projects: LoginFix.

VKD3D

A compatibility layer that translates Direct3D 12 calls into Vulkan calls. Like DXVK, Affinity doesn't need it, and leaving it enabled can cause screen flashing.

Wine

A compatibility layer that lets you run Windows programs on Linux (and other operating systems) without a Windows license or a virtual machine, by re-implementing the Windows API. Everything in this wiki runs Affinity on top of some form of Wine. See Install Guide: Wine.

Wine Mono

Wine's built-in, open-source substitute for the older .NET Framework. It conflicts with a real .NET Framework 4.8 install (which Affinity needs), so every guide in this wiki removes it first (remove_mono) before installing dotnet48.

WINEPREFIX / Wine prefix

A self-contained folder that acts as a virtual C:\ drive for Wine, with its own installed programs, fonts, and settings. Every method in this wiki uses its own separate prefix, so problems in one don't affect the others.

Winetricks

A helper script/tool that automates installing common Windows components (fonts, .NET Framework, Visual C++ runtimes, and more) into a Wine prefix.

WinRT (Windows Runtime)

A newer Windows API layer, used alongside the classic Win32 API, that some modern Windows apps rely on for things like cloud/account integration. Wine's WinRT support is incomplete. This caused the Canva sign-in crash. See Related Projects: LoginFix. Windows.winmd is the metadata file describing WinRT's types. wintypes.dll is a shim providing part of its implementation.